


Sunshine over Grey Skies

by greaterunovanarea



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black 2 & White 2 | Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 Versions
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blackmail, Boyfriends, Coming Out, Cute, Emotional Manipulation, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Homophobia, M/M, Running Away, Secret Relationship, Secrets, grey sky shipping, hugh's family is not, nate's mom is cool, rosa is a terrible person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-23 01:59:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greaterunovanarea/pseuds/greaterunovanarea
Summary: Something's wrong with Nate's friend Hugh. He's always angry for no reason.





	1. Anger

I tensed up. Hugh had been acting weird recently, and I knew he was about to go on another one of his little outbursts. He started this a few weeks ago, where I couldn’t say anything without him totally freaking out. He’s gotten a little bit better, but I think, unfortunately, that our friendship may be wearing thin. I could see the rage gathering in his face, about to spit poison at me.  
“NATE! YOU… YOU ARE THE WOR- WHY CAN’T YOU JUST SUPPORT ME? IS IT THAT HARD? WHY AM I SO AWFUL, NATE?” Hugh began to cry a bit, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. He always played the victim right after screaming at me.  
“Hugh, calm down. I never said you were awful, just that you might want to rethink this.”  
The particular ‘this’ I happened to be talking about was his selection of a sandwich. That’s why he was so angry at me. A stupid sandwich. He has Celiac disease, but forgot to ask for gluten free bread. I stepped in, thinking I was doing the right thing. Apparently, trying to save your friend’s life is not such a good idea.  
“RETHINK THIS? WHAT IS THERE TO RETHINK? I’M PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF MAKING DECISIONS FOR MYSELF!” Hugh picked up a water bottle and continued to yell at me. “RETHINK THIS, NATE!” he then proceeded to unscrew the cap from the water bottle and splash it in my face. Hugh then stormed off. I tried to follow him, but couldn’t find him after the person behind the sandwich counter gave me a paper towel to wipe my face with.

Later that night, I got a text from Hugh. ‘I’m so sorry for how I acted earlier. It won’t happen again, I promise this time,’ I smiled. At least he was pretending to try. I texted back to tell him it was okay, that everything was fine. I sighed and leaned back on my bed with my phone lying on my chest.  
I knew that things were going to work themselves out, that we were going to continue to be best friends, like we had been for the past three years. I just didn’t know how. I decided to do the one thing that I never did when I needed help- talk to my mom.  
“Mom?” I called, running down the stairs and to the living room, where my mom was sitting with a book. She looked up at me for a second and motioned for me to sit down. After bookmarking her page and closing the book, she took off her reading glasses and set them on our coffee table.  
“What’s up, Nate?”  
I gulped. “It’s… about Hugh.”  
My mom nodded. “I’ve heard him screaming at you recently. I know friends have arguments, but I’ve never seen one quite this bad. If I were you, I’d just talk to him about it.”  
I leaned back, trying to engulf myself in the couch. “I know I should talk to him,” I looked at my mom, “but I just don’t know how.”  
My mom gave me a half-smile and got up. She looked through her bookcase that lay just behind our couch until she pulled out a large book that I had never seen before. Oceanfront High Yearbook, 1986-1987.  
She spoke as she opened the book, “This was the yearbook from my sophomore year of high school,” she opened to the section labeled ‘10th Grade’ and found her picture, pointing at it to me. She then pointed at another picture of a girl with light brown hair. “This was my best friend growing up. Bea. However, that year, we fought, and fought, and fought, and fought. I talked to her, asked her how she felt, and it turns out she was just taking out the stress of her home life on me. Just ask Hugh the same thing. Make sure you’re not in public, though. That might make him feel nervous and only more angry.”  
I nodded, smiling back at her. “Thank you so much, Mom. I knew I could count on you.”  
She buried her nose back in her book, putting her reading glasses back on to signal that she was in ‘the zone’. “I’m always here if you need me, sweetie.”  
I walked back upstairs to my room and tried to plan how I’d talk to Hugh tomorrow. My mom was right- I didn’t want to make him feel threatened or exposed in any way.  
After a while, I decided to call it a night and watched cheesy television dramas instead. A guilty pleasure of mine. The first one I found was a hospital show called Dewott, M.D.- Pokemon Doctor. It was as bad as it sounds. I only watched about two episodes before passing out.

On my way to school the next day, I spotted Hugh walking from his house. I called out to him, causing him to turn around. He looked sad.  
“I’m so sorry about what happened yesterday, Nate. I really don’t know what got into me… I just went crazy. Thank you for trying to get me to actually make sense. I really do appreciate it.”  
“Like I said over text, totally fine. I get that stress can get to you sometimes,” I smiled. Hugh let out an almost-hiccup before rooting through his bag and pulling out his lip balm. Another recent habit of his, though this one was much more tolerable. He kept the egg-shaped container grasped in his fist for the rest of the journey to school, even stopping to apply two or three more layers.  
We made it to school ten minutes before the bell rang, so when he finished at his locker and waited by mine, he asked me a question. “Do you want to come over to my house after school?”  
I shook my head. “My house today.” He nodded. Perfect. This way I didn’t have to try and find some kind of private time during school. “There’s a new Luna War on tonight if you want to watch it together.”  
Hugh tensed up and started to turn red. I had just set him off again for some reason. He smeared his lips with balm, and I braced myself for the coming yelling. “I DON’T KNOW! WHY WOULD YOU ASK MY OPINION ON SOMETHING I HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN YET! NATE YOU… YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER OTHER PEOPLE… NOT JUST YOURSELF!”  
Hugh stormed off, eliciting stares at me from all the other judgemental freshman around me, including the new girl, Rosa. She walked over to me, a concerned look on her face. “Hey, uh… Nate… I guess?” I nodded. “Why are you friends with that guy. He… from what I’ve seen, he doesn’t really respect your friendship. I-i-i didn’t have a lot of friends at my old school, but even I know when to cut something off.”  
I turned to her. She hadn’t even been here a week, so this was her first time talking to me. In fact, I hadn’t seen her talk to anybody since she got here. “It… it wasn’t always like this. We used to be much, much better friends. I really miss that, but he’s just been acting so weird recently. I want to save what we had instead of just letting it go.”  
Rosa looked at me and scrunched her face. “Did you try talking to him?”  
“No. Not yet. I asked my mom for advice last night and she said the same thing, but to make sure to talk to him in private so he doesn’t feel like strangers are listening in to his feelings.”  
“Okay. Good luck, Nate,” she started walking back to her locker, “I gotta get to class now! Bye!”  
I took a glance at the clock. It was still seven minutes until the bell, but some classrooms were really far away and took a while to get to. Not seven minutes, but some people just liked to have that time cushion.

At lunchtime, Hugh sat down next to me, dried tears on his cheeks. He looked like he was on the verge of tears. “I’m so sorry, Nate. I said it wouldn’t happen again, but it did. I’m a really bad friend.”  
I patted his back. He began crying, and I tried to reassure him. “Hugh, I really don’t care. As long as you stay my best friend and know that we’ll always be friends, I’m fine.”  
Somehow my efforts to calm Hugh had only made him cry more. Something fell from his hands- the lip balm. I grabbed it from the floor and opened it, trying to get him to focus on something else.  
Eventually I grabbed his chin and pulled his head up to look at me. “Don’t cry. I really do forgive you. For all the times you’ve yelled at me.”  
That seemed to relax him quite a bit. He sniffled one last time and gave me a shaky smile, taking the lip balm back from me. “Thanks, Nate. You really are great, you know that?”  
I smiled. “We still on for later?”  
He nodded and gave me a fist bump. We continued eating. He had his mom’s gluten free mac and cheese- only the best mac and cheese in all of Aspertia City, and I had my boring old sweet potato. I’m pretty sure I’m the only kid whose mom makes sure that he takes a sweet potato for lunch every day to remind him of what a sweet little potato he is. Thanks, mom.  
As I ate, I noticed that Hugh still didn’t look totally better. “Hey, Hugh. If there’s anything wrong, you can always talk to me.”  
Hugh took a deep breath and shuddered. “Do you think we can talk later?”  
I nodded and smiled. He spent the rest of the lunch period on his phone and I didn’t try to stop him. He deserved a little bit of time for himself. 

Afterschool, Hugh came rushing to my locker. He seemed really excited. I hoped it was to talk to me, but I wasn’t going to push him. If he really didn’t want to talk, I wouldn’t talk.  
“Nate! Guess what?” I cocked my head to the side and smiled. “I GOT A NINETY-THREE ON A BIO TEST!”  
Hugh’s grades weren’t great, so for him, a C-student, a ninety three was really good. “That’s awesome!” I told him, “I’m just happy to see you happy.”  
Hugh was giddy as we walked home, practically bouncing down the sidewalk. He even seemed to apply less lip balm than he had been for the whole day.  
On the way back, we stopped to get Casteliacones- they had just opened a branch in Aspertia. Hugh got his regular double chocolate chip, and I got pistachio because I’m weird.  
As I unlocked the door to my apartment, I realized that my mom must not be home. I saw a note on the fridge. ‘Got called down to the ER. Will be back by 10:00. Sorry, sweetie. It was a big emergency.’  
I turned to Hugh. “We got the place to ourselves today. What do you want to do?”  
Hugh gently closed the door to my apartment and started getting a nervous look on his face. “C-can we talk, Nate?”  
I sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to me. “What’s up? I kind of wanted to talk to you, too.”  
Hugh’s face flashed surprise before returning to its previous state. “Well… I’ve been acting kind of strange recently. And I… just wanted to say how sorry I really feel.”  
I put a hand on his shoulder. Hugh blushed. “I’ve already told you. It’s okay. I’m more concerned about why you’ve been acting like this. Is everything okay?”  
Hugh started to fidget, and he brushed my hand away. “Nate, really. I’m fine.”  
“Is there something going on at home?”  
“No, Nate it’s just-”  
“Is someone bullying you at school? If that’s so, I can’t let that go on.”  
Hugh got out the lip balm and applied one clean layer. He was beginning to turn red, though. Everything I’ve worked for today could be gone if I didn’t get to the bottom of why he was acting like this.  
“Hugh! Calm down before you get angry again!” I made him look into my eyes. “Tell me how you really feel!”  
That only seemed to feed his anger, and he burst. “YOU WANNA KNOW HOW I FEEL, NATE?” I nodded. “YOU WANNA KNOW HOW I REALLY FEEL? I’LL TELL YOU EXACTLY HOW I FEEL!”  
I braced myself, waiting for the hateful words to come out of his mouth.

But he just leaned forwards and kissed me.


	2. Ghost

The first thing I noticed was how soft his lips were. It must have been all that lip balm. They tasted like blackberries, too. Sweet, but not overwhelming. I could only imagine how awful my lips felt compared to his. Mine were chapped and covered in ice cream, while his were like soft blackberry clouds. I could have felt those lips on mine for years and not cared.  
The second thing I noticed was how gentle he was. Not only were his lips soft, but so, too, were his hands when he wrapped them around my torso and gently rubbed my back. He could have had the opportunity to really go at it, but instead it was like he was only the one who started it, letting me take the reins as to how I wanted this to go.  
Then I opened my eyes and noticed the rest of him. His calm eyes, usually fired up but now sedated by love, were gazing intensely at me. His normally unruly blue hair seemed to perfectly frame his face in the most beautiful way.  
Suddenly we locked gazes, and he pulled away. I fell back onto my bed, staring at him with awe in my eyes, my mouth hanging open, and my face flush with surprise. Hugh, however, looked at me with fear and regret.  
I tried to break the silence. “H-hugh, I-”  
“You’re straight, aren’t you.”  
I looked up at him and struggled for words. “Well- I- um- it’s- uh- what-”  
Hugh began to cry, fat tears rolling down his perfectly soft cheeks. “I’m sorry, Nate. I’m so, so sorry.” He ran out of my apartment while I was still in shock from my first kiss.  
I sat up and considered Hugh’s question a bit further. Was I straight? Five minutes ago I would have said yes, but Hugh was a guy, and that was pretty amazing just now. It had felt like my whole world was simultaneously collapsing and expanding and I didn’t know what to do except roll with it.   
Did I like him? Did I get feelings for my best friend? Seeing as how just thinking about his lips on mine could make me blush, I thought it was safe to assume yes, meaning it was also safe to assume no on the previous question.  
I walked into the bathroom and stared in the mirror. I could still see his warm eyes, smell his subtle deodorant, hear his sharp breaths, taste his lip balm. I could still feel the ghost of his kiss. It would haunt me, I knew, until I could feel it for real again.  
I tried calling Hugh. No response. I tried texting him. No response on that either. He probably didn’t want to talk to me. Did he really not realized how much I loved that kiss?   
I couldn’t stay inside just contemplating what had happened. I needed to go somewhere. Talk to somebody that wasn’t Hugh. I had an idea. I checked my school’s new address book and found the name I was looking for.

I found myself just minutes later roaring down the streets of Aspertia city, trying to make it to my destination before I screamed out into the world that I had kissed Hugh Gray and how amazing it had been.   
Somehow I managed not to out myself and Hugh to the world before reaching a small house on the outskirts of the city. I knew I had reached the right place because the last name was painted on the mailbox. Whitley.  
I rang the doorbell. No answer. I was about to turn away when I heard a voice. “Nate?”  
Just who he had come to see. “Hey Rosa. Can I talk to you, please?”  
She raised an eyebrow before nodding, motioning for me to come in. “Did you find me through the school or something?” I nodded. “Okay then. What is it you needed to talk about and why me?”  
I readied myself, trying to gain my composure to keep at least a little bit of dignity in the situation, but I totally failed. “WHE-WHEN I TRIED TO TALK TO HUGH,” she nodded, “H-HEKISSEDMEANDIKISSEDBACKANDITWASAMAZING AN-”  
“Wait, WHAT? I thought you two were just friends! You didn’t tell me you were a couple!”  
I scratched my head. “Well… we’re not. I took my mom’s advice and asked him how he really felt and he acted all tough like ‘oh you wanna know how I really feel well I’ll tell you’, right? And then, instead of yelling at me, he KISSED ME!” I almost squealed. I had gone from questioning whether I liked him to being head over heels in love in less than an hour, and it was really confusing me. Rosa, thankfully, knew how to act in those kinds of situations.  
“Wait so why are you here? Instead of talking to him?”  
“Um… I couldn’t articulate well enough what I wanted to say after we stopped, and he thought I was straight, to be fair, I thought so, too, and ran away telling me how sorry he was. I-i was in shock.”  
Rosa started laughing. “What’s his phone number? I’ll call him?”  
I gave her the number and she dialed it. She got an almost immediate answer. He was avoiding me on purpose. My heart fell at the fact.   
“Is this Hugh Gray?” Rosa put the phone on speaker mode. I could hear the faint crackle of bad cell service coming through the phone.  
“Yes. Um… who is this?”  
“Hugh, silly. It’s me, Rosa, from school! Nate gave me your number.”  
“Nate did? Is he there now?” I gave Rosa a motion that said ‘no’, which she complied with.  
“No? We exchanged numbers before first period. I thought he was with you.”  
“Oh… yeah. Sure.”  
“So… he’s not with you? Because he made it seem like the two of you were going to spend some time together after school. I hope he’s okay. I hope no accidents happened that hurt any of his organs. Bones, muscles, stomach,” she looked at me with an evil grin, “heart.”  
There was a cough from Hugh and then a period of silence on the other end of the line. “Listen… Rosa? Was it?” Hugh’s voice cracked when he said Rosa. “I have to go. Now.”  
“You should probably call Nate to make sure he’s okay.”  
“I’ll do that just GO!”  
He hung up.  
“Wow,” I turned to her, “you’re evil.”  
“We should probably actually exchange numbers, though. Cover the evidence?”  
I nodded. I saved her as ‘Evil Lifesaver’ on my phone, because she did help me, but she didn’t need to be so harsh on Hugh. He was scared and embarrassed. Not malicious.  
When I had entered her number, she turned to me. “You should leave. I’ll go with you, but it wouldn’t do much good for you to be at my house. You need fresh air.”  
“Y-yeah. Sure,” this Rosa girl seemed intense. And bossy. And evil. She would be a valuable friend, so I made a promise to myself not to mess with her. Ever.  
Just a few minutes into our little excursion, I got a text. I pulled out my phone and smiled. It was Hugh. I opened it, however, and wasn’t as pleased. ‘I’m so sorry about earlier. We can forget that ever happened, and we don’t have to be friends if you don’t want to.’  
I wasn’t happy about that. I called him. He actually responded.  
“Nate, I-”  
“NO, Hugh. I’m the one who should be sorry. I-i wasn’t clear on what I was thinking after we kissed, but Hugh.”  
“I know, I overstepped my boundaries.”  
I frowned. “No, Hugh. It was amazing.”  
Silence. “You really mean that?” I slapped my forehead. How could he be so thick-headed sometimes.  
“YES! I loved it. It was amazing. YOU were amazing. I was just surprised, is all. When I asked you how you really felt, I, uh… wasn’t expecting that. But… I loved it. I-i-i love… you.”  
“Are you alone?”  
“No.”  
“Okay I’ll text you then. Bye for now, Nate.”  
“WAIT!” I screamed, but he had already hung up. My phone buzzed. He texted me, just as promised.  
‘Meet me in the history wing bathroom during lunch tomorrow.’  
I gulped. Lunch was at 11:20. It was 4:30. I’d have to wait almost nineteen hours to get my closure that I so desperately needed. I clenched my teeth. “Hugh…”  
Rosa stopped. “What’s wrong?”  
I shook my head, “Oh nothing. It’s really nothing important. Just… uh… memories.”  
She obviously wasn’t convinced, but wasn’t going to say anything either. She continued walking with an added bounce in her step. “Okay. What store should we go to first?”  
“Store?”  
“Yes, silly,” I gulped, “you have to look good for tomorrow, don’t you?”  
I raised my eyebrow and retorted, “I actually like my signature outfit, and I’m pretty sure Hugh does, too. I look fine.”  
Rosa squinted at me. “You are a strange, strange boy. Did you know that, Nate?”  
I looked around, seeking for some way of escape. “Um… well… I guess so?”  
Rosa started walking back towards her house. “It’s called a rhetorical question, Nate. You’re not supposed to answer it. Bye bye, lovebird!”  
I watched her go. Considering all the things she’d said, all the things she’d done, in just the short period of time that I’d known her, maybe associating with her was… a mistake. Oh well. Too late now.

Somehow I made it through the rest of the night without going insane, the constant phantom feeling on my lips drawing me closer and closer to screaming and kicking and just full on running over to Hugh’s house.  
But I have my self restraint. I didn’t see Hugh on the way to school nor before the bell. Someone else saw me, though.  
“Hey. Finally give in to your little ghost thing you’ve got going on?”  
I looked back at Rosa Whitley, trying to figure out the thought processes going on in her brain. “Nah. I can control myself, Rosa. It’s just until lunchtime.”  
“First of all, thanks for the info. And second, those are famous last words, Nate Blake. Famous last words, indeed.”  
My morning classes seemed to drag on longer than usual. Much longer. It was like the universe itself was trying to extend my suffering for as long as possible by making every minute into five. I managed it, though. I managed it somehow.  
Eventually, lunch came around. I quickly made my way to my locker and then dashed across the building to the history wing. Our rendezvous point.  
I ran in and locked myself in one of the stalls, feeling more anxious than I ever had before in my life.   
I heard the bathroom door open and the scuffle of sneakers on the cold linoleum floor. Then a voice. “Nate? Nate?”  
Hugh! I unlocked my stall and he walked in, closing the door behind him.

He walked towards me and our lips locked.


	3. Here

If the first kiss had been world-changing, this one was paradoxical. It was simultaneously softer and harder. It was gentler and rougher. It was more meaningful and less meaningful. It was necessary and it was unnecessary. It was all these things.  
But most of all it was wonderful.  
It lasted far longer than the first kiss, maybe up to five minutes. When I finally pulled away, Hugh was beaming. I smiled back at him and giggled. Hugh had an air of confidence about him that I could only attribute to myself, of course.  
“Well, well, well, Nate,” suddenly his smirk went away and his confidence was gone. “I-i’m very sorry about yesterday. I… I kissed you without your permission and then ran off. I know you’re going to say that it was okay, but this time you have to listen when I say it wasn’t. And maybe it did work out fine in the end. But that.... doesn’t really justify it. I’m sorry.”  
I put my hand on his shoulder. “I- maybe what you did wasn’t right, Hugh, but I forgive you. That’s what’s important and that’s what you should focus on… boyfriend.”  
Hugh blushed a dark shade of red and hugged me tightly. “Don’t ever change. It would be tragic.”  
I smiled and brushed some hair out of my face. “I… I won’t. So… are we going to lunch together?”  
“NO!” I gave him a shocked look. The harshness of his response caught me off guard. “I… can’t- uh… come out yet.”  
I looked down. I hadn’t even thought of that. I really guess I should have. “Oh… okay.” I must have looked hurt, because Hugh put a hand on my shoulder.  
“You… you understand, though. Right? We have to keep everything a secret for now. I’m just not sure how well my parents would react.”  
“Secret from… everybody?”  
Hugh nodded. “I know you probably want to tell your mom, but-”  
“No. I was just going to say it’s a bit too late…”  
Hugh took a step back. “WHAT? Who did you tell?”  
“Um…” I looked at him sheepishly, “Rosa… Whitley?”  
Hugh put a hand on my shoulder. “You MUST swear her to secrecy, Nate. This… this wouldn’t be good for me if word gets out. It wouldn’t be good for you, either.”  
I nodded. “I’ll make sure of it. I really… don’t want you getting hurt.”  
Hugh furrowed his eyebrows. He nodded. “Please… just make sure…”  
I left Hugh in the stall and walked out the bathroom door. Just my luck, there was somebody waiting for me.  
“Swear me to secrecy, huh, Nate?”  
“You heard that?”  
“I hear everything.”  
Rosa Whitley giggled, then leaned against the wall. She looked at her nails.  
“I’ll agree to it. But if you ever, ever cross me, guess whose secret is getting out.”  
I squinted at her. I never seemed to know what she was up to, but I was willing to cooperate. She did kind of scare me. But it was important that Hugh was comfortable and safe.  
Rosa walked away, giving me a slight wave as she left.  
I quickly left and got to my locker, trying to actually grab my lunch to eat it. There was a note that came out of my locker. ‘You have one strike, Nate. Make sure you don’t waste it.’  
I sighed. This was going to be a hard three years with her around. College would be different. Anyway, I had to get back to eating before lunch was over. No time right now to worry about the note.

Afternoon classes were fine, but during English, Hugh and Rosa both kept passing me notes, Hugh with lovey-dovey sentimental ones, and Rosa constantly threatening me. I made it through and never sent a note back to any of them.  
Rosa made sure that we had to keep our little ‘agreement’ (as she called it) a secret from Hugh. I reluctantly obliged, mainly because I was too worried about what would happen if I didn’t.

The next day, I got a text from Hugh when I woke up. ‘Meet me in the park before school.’ I didn’t know what it was about.  
I ate breakfast with my mom that morning, but we didn’t talk. I was very anxious and she could probably tell that something was up, but I really doubted she knew the truth of what was going on between me and the boy she thought was my best friend. I guess that fell to… Rosa Whitley at this point. Even though I half-hated her.  
I quickly finished my breakfast and made my way to Aspertia Central Park. I found Hugh sitting on a bench. I sat down beside him.  
“Hey, Nate.”  
“Hi. Why are we here.”  
“Just wait.” He looked around. When he was sure nobody was looking, he dragged me behind a bush and pulled me into another kiss. I quickly pulled away.  
“Here, Hugh? Someone could easily find us. Then what?”  
“Nate. There’s a reason we’re behind a bush, completely hidden from view.”  
I nodded. “Okay. As long as you’re okay with it.” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. I realized this was the first time I had initiated anything, and of course it was the time where we were hiding behind a bush.   
I was still a bit nervous, so I pulled away from the kiss a bit prematurely and walked away from the bushes. Hugh followed me, a bit upset. I smiled at him.  
“Let’s head to school.”  
He nodded.

Our little sessions behind the bushes at Aspertia Central Park continued for the next two weeks, and evolved from just pressing our lips together to intense makeout sessions. Over that brief period of time, I became acquainted with every little nook and cranny in Hugh’s mouth. The parts in his teeth, the hollows of his cheeks, every little taste bud that was on his tongue.  
It was a Wednesday, a little over two weeks after our first kiss. Hugh had pulled me behind the bushes and started kissing me, pressing his tongue between my lips. I leaned against a tree, as Hugh had gotten a bit more… overpowering since the first day behind the bushes.  
I took his face in my hands as he ran his through my hair. A strand fell in his face, and I pushed it away before freezing.  
“Nate?”  
Somebody saw me. It wasn’t Rosa, either. I would have recognized her voice. I heard someone step behind the bush and I opened my eyes. This was bad.  
It was Cecelia Gray.  
Hugh’s little sister.  
She screamed. “Hugh? What are you doing?”  
Hugh had a look of terror plastered on his face as he turned around to look at his sister. “Please,” he urged her, “don’t tell Mom and Dad.”  
Cece, who I had known for the past three years to be sweet, caring, and a kind person, grimaced, visibly repulsed by what was going on. I got up.  
“I… uh… have to go.”  
I ran. And I began to cry. But I ran.

When I got to school, there were whispers. And points. Unsurprisingly, word had gotten out. I already had no friends. Could it really get any worse from there?  
When I got to my locker, someone slapped me in the back of my head. I whipped around. Of course. Rosa. She leaned in close to me and whispered.  
“What. Happened.”  
“Um… well… I… uh…”  
“I just lost any kind of bargaining chip I could use. How could you do this to me.”  
I got angry. Who did she think she was, messing with my life, trying to make everything about her. “TO YOU?” I screamed, “WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU? STOP MAKING EVERYTHING ABOUT YOURSELF. YOU’RE NOT THE ONE WHOSE LIFE WAS RUINED THIS MORNING, ROSA. AND IT WASN’T ME, EITHER. THINK NEXT TIME YOU SPEAK TO ME OR DON’T DO IT AT ALL.”  
Even more people were looking at me now. I had to be the stupidest kid in… well, forever. Rosa looked at me, clearly very hurt by my words. I felt a twinge of guilt, but it quickly passed when I reminded myself of what she had done. What she had said.  
“Everything I did, Nate, was to help you,” she whispered, “you don’t understand how-”  
“No, Rosa,” I said, stopping her, “you’re the one that doesn’t understand.” I walked away from her, leaving an entire hallway in shock. I realised by doing this, I had crossed her, but what did I care. She didn’t have any more leverage over me or Hugh.

School was hard. Harder than it had been in weeks. Hugh never showed up. People seemed to go from not noticing me to seething hatred, because that’s just the kind of school I go to. To a lot of them, I was now evil.   
It’s weird though. Unova is known for being really accepting. Except for Aspertia City. Of course. The one place where I was unfortunate enough to live.   
Guilt also hung over me all day. I ran away. I could have stayed. Taken Hugh with me. But I ran away like the coward I am. I was ashamed. I wanted to call him, text him- anything really- to make sure he was okay. And safe. And wasn’t getting beaten for his dad for daring to kiss a boy.  
I returned to my locker at lunch to see that it and Hugh’s had both been vandalised. I unlocked what was supposed to be my own personal space, now covered in homophobic slurs, to retrieve my lunch.  
I ate in the bathroom, crying the whole time. 

The walk home from school wasn’t much better. I missed having Hugh by my side. He had become such a presence to me in the past few weeks that I almost ached without him next to me.  
But I lived.  
I got home and immediately threw myself into my mom’s arms, crying hysterically.  
“What’s wrong, sweetie? Something happen at school today?”  
I looked up at her. I wanted to tell the truth, but at the same time, I was worried how she’d react. I decided to go the honest route. “Hugh and I… have been having a secret relationship for the past few weeks,” she raised a brow, but didn’t say anything more, “and today… his sister found out. So that meant the whole school did.”  
My mom hugged me closer. “Honey. I’m so sorry. I wish you had told me, though.”  
I hugged her back. “I wish I had told you, too. I’m sorry.”  
“Don’t be. Do you need me to make you some tea?”  
I nodded. “I’ll be in my room.”

The next few hours were spent crying. Crying hysterically at that. I missed Hugh. I was scared. I didn’t want to go back to school.  
When suddenly, there was a knock on my window.  
I looked up.  
Hugh.  
I quickly ran over and opened it. “What are you doing here?”  
He climbed into my room. “My parents ground me, so I had to sneak out to see you and tell you that I’m running away. I want you to come with me.”  
“Wait a second. You’re leaving? And you just want me to drop everything and go with you?”  
“...Please?”  
I thought. I thought about everything in Aspertia that was actually worth anything. The only thing I could think of was my mom. And she was just a phone call away. I looked at my boyfriend and started packing my bags.  
“Where are we going?”  
Hugh smiled. “I thought we could end up in Nimbasa.”  
I smiled back and walked over to him, pressing our lips together. “I’d love that.”  
After I packed a small backpack full of all the basic essentials, he clambered out the window, myself following. We ran down the fire escape and kissed under the pale light of the apartment building.  
Then we ran off together, never looking back.


End file.
